Content Strategy Articles & Videos

  • Writing for Social Media: Usability of Corporate Content Distributed Through Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn

    Usability studies of corporate content distributed through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn: users like the simplicity of messages that pass into oblivion over time, but were frequently frustrated by unscannable writing, overly frequent postings, and their inability to locate companies on social networks.

  • Long vs. Short Articles as Content Strategy

    Information foraging shows how to calculate your content strategy's costs and benefits. A mixed diet that combines brief overviews and comprehensive coverage is often best.

  • Write Articles, Not Blog Postings

    To demonstrate world-class expertise, avoid quickly written, shallow postings. Instead, invest your time in thorough, value-added content that attracts paying customers.

  • Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes

    Weblogs are often too internally focused and ignore key usability issues, making it hard for new readers to understand the site and trust the author.

  • Informational Articles Must Ask For the Order

    Unless you have explicit links to product pages from article content, users who visit articles directly from search engines might never realize that you sell related products.

  • Low-End Media for User Empowerment

    Fancy media on websites typically fails user testing. Simple text and clear photos not only communicate better with users, they also enhance users' feeling of control and thus support the Web's mission as an instant gratification environment.

  • Celebrating Holidays and Special Occasions on Websites

    Even small holiday decorations can increase joy of use and make websites feel more current and more connected to users' lives and physical environment. The key is to commemorate without detracting from your users' main reasons for visiting the site.

  • Content Creation by Average People

    To take the Internet to the next level, users must begin posting their own material rather than simply consuming content or distributing copyrighted material. Unfortunately most people are poor writers and even worse at authoring other media. Solutions include structured creation, selection-based media, and teaching content creation in schools.

  • Prioritize: Good Content Bubbles to the Top

    If everything is emphasized, then nothing stands out. Prioritized design helps users focus on the most promising choices first.

  • Video and Streaming Media

    Most streaming video is useless; instead use higher-quality downloadable clips and short segments that can be chosen from a menu. All multimedia needs plain-page previews.

  • Content Integration

    Web services often collect content from separate sources and present it to users in a single interface. Making such integration usable requires unified meta-content.

  • Web Pages Must Live Forever

    Keeping old content alive will more than double the value of a site and only cost a small investment in content gardening. Removed pages equal lost users.

  • Impact of Data Quality on the Web User Experience

    Errors in data records destroy the usability of a site and make it difficult to find info. Guidelines for preventing, correcting, and surviving errors.

  • Fighting Linkrot

    6% of the Web's links are broken, diminishing its usability. All old URLs should be kept working indefinitely - otherwise you throw away business.

  • Better Than Reality: A Fundamental Internet Principle

    Instead of emulating the real world, websites should build on the strengths of the medium and go beyond what's possible in physical reality: be non-linear, customize service, ignore geography.

  • The Case For Micropayments

    Micropayments prevent annoying Web ads and encourage site-design for users' needs. Subscription fees discourage new users, search engines, and links.

  • The Web in 1998: Some Predictions

    The Web will become more international (but will overseas sites or American sites benefit?), sites will outsource services, content will adapt to usage patterns in real time.

  • Slate Magazine - An Early Review

    Slate fails due to its inability to adjust to the online medium: too long articles, too little hypertext, scrolling home page (though redesigns have improved later issues)

  • In Defense of Print

    Paper remains the optimal medium for some forms of writing, especially for long works like a book. It is an unfortunate fact that current computer screens lead to a reading speed that is approximately 25% slower than reading from paper. We have invented better screens and it is just a matter of time before reading from computers is as good as reading from paper, but for the time being we have to design our information for the actual screens in use around the world.

  • Directions for Online Publishing

    Online publishing of newspapers, magazines, and books is really a meaningless concept. We have to leave the legacy publications behind as we invent the world of online publishing.